Wash Park church hosts Bluegrass benefit show

Posted
Sunday, September 8, 2019 4:38 pm

Staff Report

Denver residents are invited to try their chops at singing bluegrass, all while raising funds for the Historic Cameron Church in Washington Park.

The fundraising event will be held on Sept. 22 at the Cameron Church, 1600 S. Pearl St. The suggested donation for the event is $10 per person, according to a news release for the event. The funds will go toward maintenance and restoration efforts at the church.

MicroGrass Band will start the event at 11 a.m., and play until 12:30. From then on, the Denver Retro Grass Jam Group will play music, and attendees are welcome to join with their own instruments or singing. The event is trying to set a record for Denver largest bluegrass jam for the event, the news release said.

The Cameron Church can trace its roots back to 1888, the news release said. The congregation’s first building was built in 1890 on the corner of East Iowa Avenue and Washington Street. The current location was later built in 1912 as the congregation began to expand in a growing Denver. At the time, the church was built for $35,000. That debt was reduced to $15,150 in 1917. But 18 years later, that same debt remained, the news release said.

By that time, the congregation was threatened with eviction. But members gathered together and raised the rest of the money to cover the loan by 1937.

“We are disgusted by the behavior of the officers in Minnesota,” Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock told members of the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. “Those were bad cops, and if they work for any sheriff in this room they would have been fired just the same.”